


Compassion and Fears

by TinyCurlyFry



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-24 12:24:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6153628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyCurlyFry/pseuds/TinyCurlyFry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Post-Pacifist story in which Toriel invites Sans and Papyrus to stay a few days with her and Frisk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sans had to admit, the forest around Toriel’s little cabin was breathtaking. At the very least, it was a nice change in scenery than the busy city Papyrus had insisted on staying in. It made his brother extremely happy to be around so many humans; they were all so fascinating to him. Sans, on the other hand, couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed among the crowds, especially when the majority of the gazes they received were either wary or hostile. But here, there wasn’t another soul in sight and you could probably hear a leaf fall if you listened close enough. Well, that is, if Papyrus’ marching steps weren’t somehow snapping every possible twig that could be on the ground between the red convertible and the cabin. Sans gave a small chuckle at this, and his brother turned his head quizzically, though his steps didn’t slow. “SANS….DO I WANT TO KNOW WHAT INITIATED THAT LAUGH OR WAS IT A PUN YOU THOUGHT OF?”

Sans decided it would be much funnier to go with that than to explain, “i can’t be-leaf you wood assume such a thing, bro.”

Papyrus let out an exasperated shout and quickened his pace to pull ahead of Sans, not wanting to give Sans’ the satisfaction of seeing Papyrus’ grin. Even without seeing the grin, however, Sans was feeling quite pleased with himself. Papyrus’ steps only slowed when he reached the doorstep, and he whirled towards Sans with impatience. “SANS!!! HURRY UP!”

Sans couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he pulled up besides his brother at the door. Before Papyrus could bang on the door Sans had his hand up and tapped the door. The two brothers listened carefully and soon picked up on a pair of footsteps walking hurriedly to the door. “Knock, knock.” Sans said rather loudly, knowing that it would carry easily through the thin, wood door.

Papyrus shot a challenging look at him, which Sans ignored completely. Toriel laughed, “Who’s there?”

“Metacarpal”

“Metacarpal who?”

“Met-a-carpal of skeletons on our way here, I think you might know them.”

“OH MY GOD SANS! NOT ONLY WAS THAT THE WORST JOKE YOU’VE MADE TODAY BUT IT’S A COMPLETE LIE!!! TORIEL, WE MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT SEE ANY OTHER SKELETONS ON OUR WAY HERE! THE ONLY OTHER SKELETON I HAVE EVER SEEN IS SANS!!”

Toriel laughed as she opened the door, her hand pressed against her cheek “Oh, it’s quite alright Papyrus. You shouldn’t be so sternum with your brother.”

Papyrus’ incredulous shriek completely covered up the shorter skeleton’s guffaw. Papyrus was suddenly cut off as two small arms flew towards the skeleton brothers. Papyrus caught the human in his arms and whirled them around, “OH FRISK! IT IS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN! THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SUFFER SANS’ TERRIBLE PUNS BY HIMSELF FOR SO LONG!”

Frisk giggled and patted Papyrus’ head in reassurance. They then squirmed out of Papyrus’ arms and immediately plopped their arms around Sans’ large jacket. Sans brought one hand around their back while the other promptly ruffled the kid’s hair, leaving it a round, frizzy mess. Frisk pulled themselves away excitedly and looked up at Toriel in bewilderment.

She smiled fondly in return, “It had been so long since we’ve met up with your skeleton friends. I invited them to stay with us for a few days.”

Frisk’s mouth was agape as they started bouncing with joy.They ran to Toriel to give her a tight hug, thanking her repeatedly. They soon broke away from the hug, and tugged on the two brothers’ boney hands to come in.

It wasn’t really by choice that the four hadn’t seen much of each other at all the past month; it hadn’t been an easy process to acclimate the monsters in with the humans on the surface. The first week or so had been especially tough for Frisk, as they tried their hardest to convince the humans the monsters weren’t a threat to humans. The monsters had been met with a lot of suspicion, so much so that Sans had been greatly worried their “happy ending” would take a turn for the worst. Luckily, a few meetings and introductions with the royal family later, things began to quiet down. At the moment, not every monster was allowed to enter the surface just yet, but a good number of them were sent to different locations as resident representatives and speakers. Sans had to admit, Papyrus was pretty fantastic at speaking with the humans, convincing ‘em that monsters weren’t so bad. He always knew what to say and what not to say to relax the tension while speaking with the public. Sans didn’t do much talking at all during these things, why should he? He’d probably only manage to mess up what progress Papyrus was making with the humans. Even Papyrus, however, couldn’t, stop the piercing sideways looks as he and his brother made their way through the streets. There hadn’t been a day where Sans wasn’t on edge. Some dark part of him expected a human to snap at any given moment and attack him or his brother.

Frisk was finally finding a break with all their diplomatic responsibilities as official ambassador. He was genuinely impressed with everything Frisk had been able to do by themselves. How did they manage to handle it all? Even though they remained cheerful and lively, Sans knew that was no proof they hadn’t struggled. The determined kid wouldn’t let themselves be anything but cheerful and confident in front of others, even if they were afraid and hurting. It was something he always admired about Frisk, but he also knew that putting up fronts wasn’t always healthy. That was part of the reason why Toriel had called him a few days back.

But right now Frisk was genuinely excited, having not expected the surprise visit at all. Toriel followed the three into the kitchen, picking up the bowl of pie mix she had been working on before the knock on the door. Frisk looked around the room hurriedly, obviously trying to decide what to show the skeletons first. Their eyes landed on the dining room wall that was visible through the doorway. The wall was completely covered in hanging squares that Sans quickly recognized to be photographs and newspaper clippings. There were pictures Frisk had managed to collect of monsters in various settings on the surface, headlines that marked important events that had passed, quotes from newspapers of positive feedback from some of the humans, and even a few of monsters that had managed to befriend a human or two.

“FRISK!” Papyrus exclaimed with a gasp, “THESE ARE AMAZING!!!”

Sans immediately recognized a few of them, mostly ones that Alphys had sent out to everyone. She and Undyne had found a city along the shore that they both fell in love with. Many of the pictures were of them on the beach together or shopping at the mall. Sans was happy to see that Alphys looked like she was finally enjoying herself. There were a few pictures and headlines regarding Mettaton and his own strategy on winning over the humans. It actually seemed to be working out rather well for him, Napstablook, and Shyren.

There were also a few pictures taken by Toriel of smiling monster kids at the school. It hadn’t been started up yet, but the monster kids were still welcome to come during the weekdays to play on the playground that had been set up. Only the bravest of parents had recently begun to allow their own curious kids to join them, but even then it was never for very long. Sans smiled fondly at the one picture on the wall that had a small girl with wavy brown hair making bunny ears behind Monster Kid. It was the only one of its kind on the wall but somehow it was the picture, and the other ones of the older monsters standing happily together with their human friends that filled Sans with the most hope. _This will work_ , he thought to himself. It would take a long time, but it would work.


	2. Chapter 2

After standing a few moments admiring the pictures on the wall, Frisk wanted to show the brothers the garden out back that they and Toriel had made. Sans was about to follow them outside when Toriel spoke up, “Actually, Frisk, would you mind if I kidnapped Sans for a while to help me out with this pie?”

Frisk nodded without hesitation, and waved to Sans before leading Papyrus to the garden. Sans waved back before walking over to one of the kitchen stools. He would let Toriel speak to him first before asking any questions about the situation. Toriel sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly as she gazed down at the strips of bread she was braiding. “I’m so glad you and Papyrus could make it out here so quickly. I don’t know how long it will be before Frisk decides they’d prefer sleepless nights. I just--- I’ve just never had to handle something like this before. Maybe… Maybe just having the two of you here will help?”

Sans nodded in reassurance even though he knew that wouldn’t be the case. A few days ago he had gotten a fretful call from Toriel, telling him that Frisk had woken up crying or even screaming in the middle of the night. Toriel couldn’t convince them to talk to her about the nightmares, and she didn’t know how to prevent them from happening. She told him she was calling him because she knew that Frisk held him and Papyrus very close to their heart as well, and that maybe with his help they could figure something out. Toriel kept this a secret from Frisk, wanting it to be a surprise, but also so as to not upset Frisk. Sans had likewise refrained from telling Papyrus anything of Frisk having night terrors. Instead, he simply told Papyrus that Toriel had invited them over in a surprise visit for Frisk.

Toriel’s voice quivered as she continued “They still refuse to tell me anything. Oh, Sans, I wish they would. I can’t help them at all like this; I feel so useless.”

Sans reached over and started braiding the other three strips to complete the circle around the pie crust. “Don’t beat yourself up about this, T. Believe me, Frisk knows how concerned you are for them, and showing concern for others is _never_ useless. Even if they won’t open up about it, it in no way means that they don’t appreciate that you care deeply about them.”

Toriel gave a weak smile, “Thank you, Sans. I do believe I needed to hear that.” after a few seconds she added, “So what do you think we should do?”

Sans patted her hand, “Well _you_ should try getting some actual rest tonight. Don’t worry, I’ll relieve you of night duty for tonight.”

“Oh! You don’t have to do that Sans! I’m sure to wake up anyway if they start having a nightmare anyway! I couldn’t possibly ask you to stay up all night like that!”

“Nah, it’s no big thing. A cup of coffee in the morning and I’ll be fine for the rest of the day. Not to mention, it’s not exactly strange to the kid to see me doze off during the day. You called for me to help out and that’s what I’m doing: helping both you and the kid out.”

Toriel sighed, admitting defeat. “Well…. alright. Thank you, Sans. You’re very sweet.”

Sans shifted in his seat awkwardly, forcing himself to focus on braiding the crust.

Toriel was laying the two braids around the edge of the pie just as Papyrus and Frisk marched back in the house, Frisk carrying an armful of dandelions and a small variety of other flowers pulled from the garden itself. Toriel raised an eyebrow as Frisk threw the pile on the kitchen table. “And what are all those for?” She asked in amusement.

“Flower crowns!” They said proudly, pointing to the top of their head as if there was one already there. 

“FRISK AND I AGREED THAT WE SHOULD EACH GET ONE IN CELEBRATION!” Papyrus chipped in.

“That’s a marvelous idea, my child.”

Sans watched as Frisk began to weave flowers together, Papyrus watching them intently as he tried, in vain, to mimic Frisk’s finger movements. A breathy chuckle escaped Sans at the sight of Papyrus fumbling in frustration as his flowers kept coming undone. Sans pulled away from the counter to join the two at the table. Frisk gave him a big grin as Sans picked up a few and quietly began to braid them together. As soon as the pie was in the oven Toriel too took a seat and began making one, every so often offering advice to Papyrus for keeping the flowers together. Sans let out a long breath and closed his eyes as his fingers worked methodically. He liked this a lot. Sitting here with them, the smell of pie just beginning to fill the kitchen. He wondered if there was a chance he could convince Papyrus to get a house near here, heck, maybe even build one for themselves. But, he knew Papyrus would never allow that, not while he had responsibility as a representatives of the monsters to carry out. Maybe afterwards, though. In the meantime, Sans would just have to plan a lot more visits like this with Toriel and Frisk. Maybe even try to bring the whole gang together at some point. It wouldn’t be as quiet, but it would be nice. Certainly a nice break from the tension and hostility of the city.

Frisk tied the last few flowers around the ends of their circlet and happily planted it onto Papyrus’ head. Papyrus immediately pulled up from his own braiding and swept Frisk up into his arms. From his lap Frisk helped Papyrus tie the ends of his own crown together. A number of flowers from his were threatening to fall out, but it was done. Papyrus held it up to admire, Frisk clapping proudly. Papyrus turned happily towards his brother, “Here Sans! We should follow Frisk’s lead and give each other our crowns!”

Papyrus’ Crown fit loosely on Sans’ head, a flower drooping down between Sans’ eyes. Sans made no move to move the flower, entertained by the giggles the flower incited from Frisk and Toriel both. The last two crowns were passed the rest of the circle, Sans gave his to Toriel, who in turn fit hers onto Frisk’s head.Toriel then excused herself to take out the pie, asking the others what they wanted for dinner before pie.


End file.
